Minimetro - Ideas to Steal

This months issue of Global Affairs magazine Monocle contains an article on some of the best ideas our busiest cities have in dealing with our modern lifestyles.

Monocle correspondent Ivan Carvalho provided a write up on the MiniMetro of Perugia, [copy below] with further insights from Tokyo, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Bogota. See more at www.monocle.com

The Idea

Officials in the hilltop capital of Umbria hired ski-lift manufacturer Leitner to find an environmentally friendly way to get people up to its historic centre. Leitner engineers came up with MiniMetro, a light railway powered by an electric motor that pulls passenger cabins attached to a steel rope along a track at speeds of up to 30 km/h, at one-minute intervals. Perugia hired Jean Nouvel to design the stations and the innovative transport solution is estimated to have slashed three million car trips annually.

Who has copied it?

Frankfurt airport will unveil its line at the end of 2011 while Cairo airport and the Italian cities of Bolzano and Pisa have expressed an interest.